2024-08-20 18:54:12
New Delhi: The recent violence in Bangladesh has also affected India. The biggest impact was seen in the tourism sector. Bangladeshi travelers account for 23% of India’s inbound tourism market. Many people from Bangladesh come to India for treatment and shopping. The highest number of Bangladeshis coming to India is seen during Durga Puja and wedding season. The number of Bangladeshis coming to India has declined due to Bangladesh violence. Officials of the Bangladesh Travel Operators Association told our associate Economic Times that due to the recent violence in Bangladesh, the number of Bangladeshis coming to India for shopping has declined by 90%. This crisis had worsened about two weeks ago when former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned and left the country. Due to this situation, flights between the two countries were temporarily stopped. During this time, all visas were suspended except for medical emergencies.
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Flights resumed but no passengers!
The situation in Bangladesh now seems to be back on track. Flight operations between the two countries have resumed. According to an official of a company that operates flights to Dhaka, the load factor for these flights has dropped to less than half. That is, not as many passengers are flying as they used to earlier.
The number of people coming for treatment is high
Mohammad Taslim Amin Shovan, director of the Bangladesh Tour Operators Association, said that outbound travel to India is a big part of Bangladesh’s travel market. Outbound travel is travel in which people travel from one country to another for tourism, business, education, healthcare, meeting friends and relatives, etc. About 40 to 45 percent of Bangladeshis come to India for outbound travel. Most of these people come for medical treatment (more than 80%). At the same time, 15% people come for shopping and 5% come for holidays.
There was so much loss in medical
India’s medical sector has suffered the most economic losses due to the crisis in Bangladesh. In the year 2023, the number of people coming to India for treatment from Bangladesh increased by 48 percent. Amit Bez, CEO and founder of Kolkata-based medical tourism company Indiatreatments.com, said that his firm used to treat at least 150 Bangladeshi patients every month. Now this number has come down to only 5 or 6 patients.
Ram Gopal Bardhan, Chief Manager of International Health Care at Manipal Hospitals, said that Bangladeshi patients usually come to cities like Kolkata, Chennai, Delhi and Hyderabad. He said that we used to treat about 1700-2000 patients every month. This used to give us a revenue of Rs 120 to 150 crore. However, now it has declined drastically.